Manual toothbrushes of one form or another have been used to clean teeth for many years. Depending on the exact technique used in conjunction with such manual toothbrushes, results obtained through their use are generally adequate.
Mechanical, and especially electromechanical toothbrushes that provide a means for an individual to brush his teeth more effectively, properly and thoroughly than by use of a simple manual toothbrush, have been available for several years. Most of these mechanical or electromechanical toothbrushes rotate or oscillate in some manner so as to vigorously clean the teeth. Typically, electromechanical toothbrushes are powered by rechargeable batteries that power an electric motor that in turn drives the toothbrush head or heads. It has been found that in general such electromechanical toothbrushes do indeed produce improved results compared to brushing with a manual toothbrush.
There is a technique, which is known among professionals as the "Bass Technique", that can be used to achieve superior results in terms of cleaning one's teeth through use of a manual toothbrush. In basic terms, the "Bass Technique" requires the user to position the brush over a zone of the teeth use very short strokes to vibrate the brush so as to "brush" that zone of the teeth as described above for a period of time sufficient to remove foreign material therefrom. These short strokes are made in a direction transverse to the orientation of the bristles. Towards the end of a given stroke, the bristles flex so as to become oriented such that the ends thereof point generally away from the direction of travel of the bristles across the teeth. At this point, the bristles have started to sweep across the teeth, which is not very effective for removing foreign material from the teeth, and therefore the direction of the stroke is changed, and a new stroke begun in the opposite direction. At the beginning of this new stroke, the still flexed bristles are pointed in the direction of the stroke which causes the bristle to chisel the foreign material from the teeth for a moment before the bristles again flex so as to again sweep across the teeth. Generally, this type of brushing takes more than 20 strokes at each separate location and there are typically about 40 different brush locations that are required to brush all of a person's teeth. At a vigorous pace of three strokes per second, this procedure would take over four minutes using a manual toothbrush, which is unacceptably lengthy. It has been found that for virtually any procedure for cleaning the teeth, most people are apt to quit brushing after about one minute. This means that in the case of the "Bass Technique", the cleaning procedure would normally not be done properly using a manual toothbrush.
The advantage of using the "Bass Technique" is that the bristles are emulating a chiseling action, instead of a sweeping action, and this is the most effective way of removing foreign material from the teeth.
It is believed that superior results would also be possible through use of a mechanical or electromechanical toothbrush that takes advantage of the chisel type cleaning demonstrated by the "Bass Technique". Indeed, it is possible that the chiseling action demonstrated by the "Bass Technique" could be improved on by providing a more direct chiseling and flexing action of the bristles. In order to do this, such a toothbrush would need to have bristles that approach the teeth substantially directly along the longitudinal axis of each bristle and then bends slightly, so that each bristle chisels and generally undercuts any foreign material from the teeth so as to lift the foreign material away.
As will be discussed in greater detail hereafter, the present invention provides a mechanical or electro-mechanical toothbrush that will effectively emulate the "Bass Technique". The toothbrush that is provided by the present invention may be used, in the sense of the manner that it is held in the hand and somewhat in the manner that it is moved around the mouth, in much the same manner as a conventional toothbrush. Thus, the mechanical action of the present invention will provide for the bristles to thrust forwardly in a direction that is generally perpendicular to the teeth, along the longitudinal axes of the bristles, and the bristles will flex or bend slightly when they contact the teeth due to the pressure being applied against them by the user as he holds the toothbrush. However, the bristles of the toothbrush then exhibit a mechanical oscillating action in short strokes along their longitudinal axes, which occurs as a consequence of the bristles being mechanically driven. As the user manipulates the toothbrush of the present invention in much the same manner as an ordinary toothbrush would be manipulated, the pressure of the brush against the teeth deflects the bristles of the toothbrush around the complex topography of the teeth. Thus, the cleansing action which is somewhat as a chisel or scraper would act against a surface will generally undercut any foreign material, which is then lifted or washed away. That cleansing or cleaning action occurs as the distal end of the bristles which are more or less tangential, or at least at an acute angle, to the tooth surfaces.
In action, therefore, the mechanical bristle action occurs such that the original stroke which is imparted to the bristle is transmitted to where the bristle end is flexed, so that the tip of each bristle moves in the same direction as the bristle axis, with a positive or negative motion of the bristle end in that direction as a consequence of the reciprocating motion imparted to the bristles.
Other known techniques, especially of prior mechanically driven toothbrushes, merely sweep the high spots, never entering the area between the teeth or the small irregularities in the teeth. Various types of toothbrushes that use these other known techniques are discussed hereafter, with respect to the Prior Art.